Business this week

The euro zone’s GDP shrank for the sixth straight quarter, falling by 0.2% from January to March. Output fell in nine of the currency union’s 17 countries, including France, which dipped into recession for the second time in four years. Its biggest economy, Germany, grew by just 0.1%. See article

Britain’s unemployment rate stood at 7.8% in the first three months of the year. The ranks of the jobless swelled by 15,000 compared with the previous quarter, to 2.52m.

The Bank of Israel cut its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points, to 1.5%. It also said it would buy $2.1 billion in foreign currency this year. The move follows rate cuts by central banks in Australia, South Korea, Poland, India and Hungary. The aim is to ease upward pressure on their currencies from unconventional monetary policies adopted, in an effort to boost economic growth, by their American, Japanese and euro-area counterparts.

In America the producer price index slipped by 0.7% in April, the biggest decline since February 2010. Wholesale prices rose by 0.6% over the past 12 months.

Fixing problems

The European Commission said that it had carried out “unannounced inspections” at big oil and biofuel companies, including Shell, BP, Norway’s Statoil, as well as at Platts, the world’s leading price-reporting agency. The commission fears the firms colluded to distort oil prices. See article

The Financial Reporting Council, which regulates accounting in Britain, launched two probes into KPMG. This follows an insider-trading scandal linked to the accounting firm’s office in Los Angeles.

America’s Commodity Futures Trading Commission has begun looking into the legality of 1m swap transactions for energy and metals carried out over the past two years. The probe is the latest part of an effort to clamp down on previously unregulated over-the-counter derivatives trading.

Stockmarkets around the world continued to soar, with the MSCI world index rising by 12.9% since the start of 2013. In America the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 index reached record highs for the year. In Tokyo the Topix 500 index leapt by 46% in local-currency terms since the start of the year, and by 68% over the past 12 months. The Stoxx Europe 600 index is at its highest in almost five years. See article

Google’s share price exceeded $900 for the first time. The internet giant also tweaked some popular offerings, such as Google Maps, and unveiled a new music-streaming service that will compete with the likes of Spotify and Pandora.

Petrobras, Brazil’s state-owned oil company, auctioned off bonds worth $11 billion. The corporate-debt issue was the biggest ever for an emerging market, and the second-biggest in the world this year, behind only Apple’s record-breaking $17 billion bond sale in April.

Mutually assured debacle

Moody’s downgraded the Co-operative Bank by six notches to junk status. The ratings agency said the financial-services arm of the Co-operative Group, Britain’s biggest mutual company, might need a government bail-out because of losses from bad debts and a merger in 2009 with Britannia building society. The bank denied it needed taxpayer support. See article

Tata Steel announced a $1.6 billion write-down, mainly as a result of the flagging fortunes of Corus, a British steelmaker which the Indian firm acquired in 2007 for £6.7 billion ($13 billion at the time). See article

Bloomberg scrambled to allay privacy concerns after it emerged that the financial-information provider’s reporters had access to privileged data about users of its ubiquitous terminals. Matthew Winkler, the editor-in-chief, apologised for what he called an “inexcusable” error and said such practices have ceased. See article

Verizon Wireless, America’s biggest mobile-service provider, announced an unexpectedly large dividend of $7 billion to its parent companies, Verizon Communications and Vodafone.

Daniel Loeb, an American activist hedge-fund manager, bought a 6.5% stake in Sony for $1.1 billion. Mr Loeb immediately urged the Japanese company to sell part of its lucrative entertainment arm, which sells music and makes the James Bond films, and focus on its core consumer-electronics business. See article

Bits and bobbies

Various British government agencies, including tax authorities, the police and intelligence services, met in London to discuss risks posed by Bitcoin, an unregulated virtual currency that they fear may be exploited by criminals and tax-dodgers.